Although Indonesian (also know as Bahasa Indonesia or "language
of Indonesia") is the official language of Indonesia, it is only
spoken as a first language by 17 to 30 million of that country's
inhabitants. Second language speakers, however, amount to over 140
million.1
Indonesian is an Austronesian language; it belongs to the
Western, or Indonesian, branch of the language family. Standard
Indonesian, which became the official language of Indonesia in
1945, is based on the dialect found in the southern Malay Peninsula
(the so-called Bahasa Riau dialect).2 Unlike Malay in
Malaysia, Indonesian has become the lingua franca of Indonesia
through its relative simplicity, as well as the fact that it is not
connected with any particular ethnic group in the country.
Like Malay, Indonesian has been greatly expanded through its
borrowings from languages such as "Arabic (in particular many
religious terms), Sanskrit, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese
dialects and more recently, English (in particular many scientific
and technological terms)."3 Indonesian's orthography and
grammar are regulated by the Pusat Pembinaan dan
Pengembangan Bahasa or the Centre for Language Development.
Below are some brief but important facts about the country of
Indonesia and its people.
Capital: Jakarta
Currency: Indonesian rupiah (IDR)
Government Type: Republic
Population: 238,452,952 (July 2004 est.)
Internet Country Code: .id
Internet Hosts: 62,036 (2003)
Internet Users: 8 million (20023)
For additional demographic information on the countries listed
here, you can check out the following link:
For information on The Indonesian Writing System,
please see our Quick Facts
Library.
1 "INDONESIAN: a language of Indonesia (Java
and Bali)" Ethnologue.com
[Accessed December 18, 2004]
2 "Malay language" Wikipedia
[Accessed December 17, 2004]
3 "Malay language" Wikipedia
[Accessed December 17, 2004]
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